What’s New in Android 15 Developer Preview? Edge‑to‑Edge UI, NFC, and More

Android’s development team has released the first beta of Android 15, allowing developers and early adopters to test it on supported Pixel devices.

Default Edge‑to‑Edge Apps

Starting with this beta, apps now default to a full edge‑to‑edge display, meaning content can appear behind system bars such as the top notification bar or bottom navigation bar. Previously, developers had to call special methods to unlock this behavior.

Smoother NFC

The release also unlocks the ability to register fingerprints for a Google Wallet‑style tap‑to‑pay experience, notifying users of NFC app polling cycles. The second developer preview of Android 15 introduces an observer pattern that enhances NFC interactions.

Improved Character Spacing

A new feature lets developers adjust text based on character spacing, which is especially useful for languages that use spaces for segmentation, such as Chinese and Japanese.

App Archiving

Android 15 adds OS‑level support for archiving and unarchiving apps, a feature introduced last year to save space by removing rarely used apps. Archived apps remain visible in the launcher with an icon indicating they need to be re‑downloaded.

Other New Features

ProfilingManager class for collecting heap dumps, heap profiles, and stack samples.

TalkBack screen reader now supports braille output.

End‑to‑end encryption key management.

Additional protections to prevent malicious background apps from moving other apps to the foreground or elevating their privileges.

Android Engineering VP Dave Burke wrote in a blog post that Android 15 continues the effort to build a platform that boosts user productivity, delivers high‑quality app experiences, protects privacy and security, and makes apps accessible to as many users as possible across a diverse device ecosystem.